


Jack of all Clubs

by Sparky_Young_Upstart



Category: The Society (TV 2019)
Genre: Bean Akkad protection squad, Bean joins all the clubs, Friendship, Gen, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Pre-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 13:20:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19210261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparky_Young_Upstart/pseuds/Sparky_Young_Upstart
Summary: Bean Akkad came to West Ham with a plan: join every club she can to make as many friends as possible. As far as Gordie can tell, it worked.





	Jack of all Clubs

**Author's Note:**

> Bean was part of the Committee on Going Home, the Improv Club, the Farming Expedition, and even managed to join the Turkey Committee(?). Why is she on all these clubs? I've a theory...

In tenth grade, Gordie started a cribbage club.

It was kind of silly, really. Why would high schoolers want to play crib? Gordie was the only one. He wasn’t cool enough to play poker with the other cool kids like Harry or Jason. And he’d played so many games of solitaire that it was starting to feel really lonely...and a little loser-ish. Bridge was an old person game, or at least that’s what other people thought. Cribbage, though, that was the sweet spot. At least Gordie had assumed so. But now, as he looked out on the empty classroom that he’d gotten permission to use, it seemed like a very silly idea.

After fifteen minutes he was legally allowed to leave and he nearly did, until another girl popped her head in the door. “Is this cribbage club?” she asked.

“Uh...yeah! Yeah it is!” Gordie said, taking a moment to will his excitement back up. It was only one person, but that was 100% more than before. “You’re interested in joining?”

She nodded excitedly. “Yeah! I’m always looking for another club to join!” She happily skipped towards him and plopped her backpack next to her chair. “One question though. What’s cribbage?”

Gordie had started shuffling cards when he paused. “You...hang on. You’re joining a club and you don’t know what it’s about?”

The girl shrugged. “Yeah. Like I said, I’m always joining new clubs.”

Gordie grimaced. “How? Like, how would you have the time? I’m already in three science clubs and I barely have a social life.” He chuckled. “Do you have a Time Turner or something?”

The girl raised an eyebrow. “Time Turner...is that a cribbage thing..?”

“No, sorry. Harry Potter reference.”

“Oh! I’m starting in the Harry Potter club tomorrow. Maybe I’ll find out then?” she held out her hand to shake. “By the way, my name’s Bean.”

* * *

Bean wasn’t kidding about always joining new clubs. Gordie hadn’t realized it before but she was actually in two clubs with him already - robotics and astronomy. Those were popular enough that he hadn’t really noticed her. But now that he had an hour alone with her at lunch where they could just play card games and talk, he realized that Bean Akkad was...well, she was everywhere.

Some days she showed up in a tunic and hose because she had drama club after and didn’t have time to change in between. Some days she came in late because she had just come from environment club meetings. Another time she was dressed a different tunic, this time for LARP club. She invited him to an art show put on by both the photography club and painting club one week. When he asked her which one she was in she just said “Yep!”

During a mandatory assembly the faculty decided to break the monotony by having both the chamber choir and jazz band perform partway through. Gordie managed to pick Bean out in the middle of the other singers just as she wormed her way out of them and snuck into the clarinet section, picking up her instrument just in time for the next number to begin.

Sometimes Gordie saw Bean in the hall, but whenever he tried to say hi he found his path blocked by one person or another. Every few feet it seemed like Bean bumped into somebody she was pals with. Guys, girls, beyond, it didn’t matter who it was. Everyone seemed to know Bean, and Bean knew everyone, and they all got along great. Gordie wasn’t jealous - there really wasn’t a reason to be - but he was very impressed.

When he went to remind Cassandra about getting a picture of the Cribbage club in the yearbook, she was surprised he asked. “Didn’t Bean tell you? She already got one of the two of you.” She showed him the roughs and he saw a selfie that Bean had taken of the two of them a few days earlier.

“She’s in Yearbook too?”

Cassandra nodded. “That’s not even the half of it. Look.” She began clicking through the pages that had all the club photos and in almost every single one was Bean. Anyone who didn’t know her would think that she was photobombing them, but that was silly. She was clearly a part of every club, smiling widely with all the other members. Gordie couldn’t help but chuckle. “Wow. She was not kidding.”

“She told you she joined all the clubs she could, too?” Cassandra asked, and Gordie nodded. “Same here. I wish I had the time and energy to do this much.”

* * *

The week before the school year ended, just after the finished their last game before summer vacation, Gordie broke the ice. “So, how come you join all those clubs? You can’t really be interested in everything there.”

Bean shrugged. “You’d be surprised. I contain multitudes.” She grinned at her comment. “But really, it’s more about what happened to me last year at my old school.”

Gordie stomach dropped a little. He worried that it was something terrible. “What happened?” he asked cautiously.

“Absolutely nothing,” Bean declared spitefully. “I didn’t have any friends, I barely had any acquaintances. It was like I was invisible.” She sighed. “I’m pretty sure it was because of this,” she gestured at her hijab, “and that people were just giving me the silent treatment. At first I thought it was better than just being a racist dick, but at a certain point the isolation was just as bad.

Gordie swallowed. “Damn. I’m sorry you had to go through all that.”

Bean took a breath too. “It’s fine. I mean it’s not _fine_ , but like, it’s in the past. Besides, I totally flipped the script this year. The family moved to West Ham and I decided ‘new year, new me’. And I joined every club I could.” She grinned. “People had no choice but to like me, and guess what?”

“What?” Gordie asked.

“Turns out I’m actually _awesome_ , and everyone loves me.”

Gordie grinned. “You’ve got that right.”

* * *

A few days later school was done and everyone was running around signing everyone’s yearbooks. Gordie was just about to look for Bean when he felt somebody collide with him from behind. “Hey!” she squealed excitedly. “Check it out!” She popped her copy open and showed him. The cover and pages were swimming with names and signatures and comments about how much they’d miss her over the summer.

“That’s awesome! Your plan worked!” Gordie beamed.

“I know,” Bean said with devious glee. “I’m basically the most popular person in school. Harry Bingham eat your heart out.” She pushed her book closer to him and handed him a pen. “I saved my best friend for last.”

Gordie raised an eyebrow. “ _Best_ friend?”

Bean was grinning. “Well, duh. I mean I met a lot of great people all over the school, but I always looked forward to chilling with you down here. It’s nice, you know? Just the two of us hanging out like buds.”

Gordie nodded. “I couldn’t have said it better myself.” He looked down at Bean’s yearbook, found a spot that wasn’t yet filled in, and started speaking aloud as he wrote. “My BFF Bean, the coolest bud I could find. Have a great summer, and I’ll see you back here in the fall.” He finished it off with a little smiley face.

Bean was finishing up on his as he handed hers back. She saw that Gordie didn’t sign the front of back covers, but instead had flipped to the picture of the two of them on the clubs page. “Aww, thank you!”

“You’re very welcome!”

“No really. Thank you.” Gordie’s eyes met Bean’s and he was struck by how earnest her look was. He was suddenly a little boy again, crying to his mom about not having any friends and being told that he just had to try harder. He did, but it was tough. And yet it seemed so natural to Bean whenever they talked. Gordie couldn’t imagine standing out from all the other people she’d befriended, but he was honoured simply to be among them.


End file.
